How Many Job Cuts and Store Closures at Pimkie?

SOCIAL:200 to 250 jobs could be cut and 80 Pimkie stores closed …

“It’s ruined Christmas for employees.” In Echoes, Valerie Pringuez , CGT delegate and secretary of the Works Council (EC) of Pimkie France does not mince words. The chain of ready-to-wear (Mulliez group) must submit by the 8th January to employees a project of job cuts, via collective conventional failures, according to unions.

Permitted by the reform of the Labor Code, these breaks amicable contract number require a majority agreement with the unions. This is a form of voluntary redundancy plan outside the framework of a social plan.

Employees “will pay full price”

“They announced us on 19 December Works Council their willingness to sign an agreement of collective conventional failures,” said Valerie Pringuez. Contacted by AFP, the management of Pimkie could not be reached. “Today it is inconceivable that the CGT sign,” added Valérie Pringuez, adding that the negotiations will last one month of the presentation of the project in the Central Works Council on the 8th January.

For his colleague Maley Upravan (FO), management intends “to avoid a lot of stress” (including reclassification) by eliminating positions through collective conventional failures. If the project succeeds, the employees “will pay the full price taxes on their benefits,” she complained.

“A wind of panic” among employees

This “procedural announcement to say that will be affected” created “a wind of panic” among employees, says Valerie Pringuez. The unofficial figure of 200 to 250 job cuts in France, based in Neuville-en-Ferrain (Nord), circulates in Les Echos . Pimkie has 1,900 employees in France.

According to the secretary of the EC working groups, combining several weeks employees in the development of the recovery plan of the deficit teaches, proposed the closure in 2018 of 81 stores, including 20 in France and 40 more in 2019 in Germany, “the country most affected.” Pimkie International will end the year with “a hole of € 45 million,” which “more than 1 million for France ‘deficit to” first year “, according to Maley Upravan (FO).

Pimkie has over 700 stores in 30 countries and employs approximately 5,200 employees, according to the website of the brand.